Kountze man's capital murder trial starts this week

By Liz Teitz

Updated
4:12 pm CST, Monday, February 19, 2018

Hardin County capital murder suspect Jason Wade Delacerda, right, in a Kountze courtroom Tuesday morning for the start of jury selection. Delacerda, 40, is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl in 2011. One of his two defense attorneys has requested a change of venue. A judge is expected to rule on that motion Friday. Attorney James Makin is also pictured. Photo taken Tuesday, January 09, 2018 Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise less

Hardin County capital murder suspect Jason Wade Delacerda, right, in a Kountze courtroom Tuesday morning for the start of jury selection. Delacerda, 40, is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl in 2011. One of ... more

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

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Hardin County capital murder suspect Jason Wade Delacerda, right, in a Kountze courtroom Tuesday morning for the start of jury selection. Delacerda, 40, is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl in 2011. One of his two defense attorneys has requested a change of venue. A judge is expected to rule on that motion Friday. Attorney James Makin is also pictured. Photo taken Tuesday, January 09, 2018 Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise less

Hardin County capital murder suspect Jason Wade Delacerda, right, in a Kountze courtroom Tuesday morning for the start of jury selection. Delacerda, 40, is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl in 2011. One of ... more

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Kountze man's capital murder trial starts this week

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Attorneys for a Kountze man accused of murdering a 4-year-old more than six years ago plan to offer no defense in his capital murder trial this week and instead will rely on a jury to find that the prosecution's evidence is too weak for a conviction.

Jason Wade Delacerda, 40, was indicted in 2011 on a capital murder charge along with his then-girlfriend Amanda Nichole Guidry, 36, in connection with Breonna Nicole Loftin's death.

Loftin died at a Beaumont hospital from blunt force trauma on Aug. 17, 2011. Hospital staff told Hardin County investigators the girl had burn marks, bruises and signs of sexual abuse, a sheriff's investigator wrote in a 2011 arrest affidavit for Guidry and Delacerda.

Defense attorney Ryan Gertz said Monday that he and James Makin are "not going to present any defense at all."

They will not make an opening statement, cross-examine witnesses or present any alternate theory, he said, because doing so would "open the door" for the prosecutors to present "extraneous offensive evidence" that does not directly relate to Loftin's death.

That evidence, which Assistant District Attorney Bruce Hoffer read in court during a Jan. 12 hearing, includes information that Loftin had broken bones, scabs and cigarette burns on her body and had signs of pushpins pressed into her forehead, toes and fingers, among other injuries.

Hoffer said last month that the evidence needs to be included because it contributes to the state's theory that "he tortured her to death" and shows the progression of abuse.

The evidence is intended to say "Hey, look, things don't happen in a vacuum," Hoffer said, as well as to establish the relationship between Delacerda and Loftin and show his motive.

Gertz said that introducing that evidence should not be allowed, though his motions to have it excluded have not been granted.

Judge Steven Thomas said he will rule whether to allow evidence as it is presented.

"We are confident enough that we are going to sit and not do anything," Gertz said, which he and Makin believe should result in either insufficient evidence to support a conviction or a ruling based on the extraneous evidence, which will be grounds for an appeal, he said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection began in early January, when 107 potential jurors were given a 10-page questionnaire related to the case.

Opposing counsel then met with the potential jurors individually before deciding on the jury panel.

Delacerda's co-defendant, Guidry, was released from jail in December 2014 on a reduced $250,000 bond. Her original bond was set at $1.5 million.

She'll likely be prosecuted later this year, District Attorney David Sheffield said in a previous interview. Prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty in her case.